Bing's AI answers may already be citing other sites for questions your customers ask, and until now you could not see which questions. On 13 October 2026 Microsoft Bing added Topics Portfolio, a beta tab in the AI Performance report of Bing Webmaster Tools. It groups the searches where Bing's AI used your pages into topics, and it lists opportunity queries: questions where other sites are cited and yours is not. Smaller sites may see nothing yet, and the report covers Bing's own AI surfaces, never ChatGPT. Open it this week and write one page for the top question on the list.
Most owners have never seen a single line of evidence about what an AI engine says when a customer asks about their trade. They hear about it secondhand, when a customer mentions that Copilot or ChatGPT suggested someone else. On 13 October 2026, Microsoft Bing changed that for one engine. Its webmaster report now lists the questions where Bing's AI cited other websites and did not cite yours.
This post explains what Bing added, what it does not cover, who will see nothing yet, and how to read it in about twenty minutes this week. Every claim about the report comes from Bing's own two blog posts, linked in the references.
What did Bing add on 13 October?
Bing added a tab called Topics Portfolio to the AI Performance report inside Bing Webmaster Tools, the dashboard Bing gives site owners. Bing's announcement, titled "Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance", says the tab "groups the grounding queries where your site appears into broader thematic clusters". In plain words: it takes the searches where Bing's AI used one of your pages and sorts them into subjects, such as catering, school fees or car hire.
The part an owner will care about is a list Bing calls opportunity queries. Bing's post describes them as "the strongest queries across your whole portfolio where other sites appear and yours does not". That is a named list of questions where Bing's AI answered with someone else's page.
Each topic also carries three estimates: Topic Size, which is roughly how many citations the whole topic gets across all sites; Sites Cited, roughly how many sites compete in it; and Queries, roughly how many distinct searches it covers. You can look back over one, two or three months. The tab is labelled beta.
What does the AI Performance report already show?
The report underneath the new tab has existed since February. Bing's post of 10 February 2026, "Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview", describes it as "a new set of insights that shows how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot". The same post lists where the data comes from: "Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations".
It reports how many times your pages were shown as sources in AI answers, which pages were cited, and how that changed over time. It also lists grounding queries, which Bing defines as "the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers". Those are the searches Bing's AI ran behind the scenes when it used your page.
So before 13 October you could see where you were cited. From 13 October you can also see where you were left out.
What is an opportunity query, in plain words?
An opportunity query is a question Bing's AI answered recently, in a subject where your site already appears, using pages from other sites and none from yours. Each one is a question a customer may have asked, answered with someone else's page.
Here is a made-up example to show the shape. Say you run a catering business in Ikeja and your site has a page about wedding packages. Bing might group your citations under a topic about event catering in Lagos. The opportunity list under that topic might include a question like "how much does small chops for 200 guests cost in Lagos". Other caterers' pages answered it. Yours did not, because your site never states a price range.
That gap is something you can fix with one page. The report does not tell you how to fix it. It tells you where to look, which is the part most owners have been guessing at.
What did not change?
Read these before you read too much into the new tab.
First, the report covers Bing's own AI surfaces and the partners Bing names. It does not cover ChatGPT. OpenAI's crawler documentation, read on 14 October 2026, lists four crawlers and describes no citation report for site owners. If your customers mostly ask ChatGPT, you still measure that by asking it yourself.
Second, Bing's post describes a new view of existing data. It says nothing about a change in how Bing's AI chooses which pages to cite. Nothing about your standing moved on 13 October. You can just see more of it.
Third, the numbers are estimates. Bing says Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries are approximate and that opportunity volumes are shown as ranges. It also says that "Topic classification is AI-generated and can occasionally be imperfect". Treat the list as a guide to which question to answer first.
Who will see nothing yet?
Many small businesses will open the report and find no Topics Portfolio tab. Bing's post says the tab appears "If there is sufficient data for your site", and it is direct about who misses out: "smaller sites may see a shorter list or may not even see this feature". Bing does not say how much data is enough.
A missing tab does not mean Bing has judged your business. It means Bing's AI has not cited your pages often enough to sort them into topics. The citation view of AI Performance still works for you, and so does the oldest test there is: ask the engine the question your customer asks and write down who it names.
One more caution from Bing's own post: "Branded queries can appear as opportunity queries." A search for another company by name will sometimes show up on your list. Skip those. A search for your own name that cites other sites is worth reading closely, because it means Bing's AI described your business using pages you do not control.
How to read the report this week
This takes about twenty minutes once your site is verified. If it is not, the first step is the one that takes longest.
- Get your site into Bing Webmaster Tools. Sign in at bing.com/webmasters and add your website, then follow the verification steps it gives you. Whoever runs your website can do this in an afternoon. When it is done, you will see your site listed on the Bing Webmaster Tools home page.
- Open AI Performance and read the citations first. Look at how many times your pages were cited in AI answers and which pages they were. When you have done this, you will know which page Bing's AI uses most, and whether it is the page you would have chosen.
- Open Topics Portfolio, if the tab is there. Bing says it sits next to Citations and Pages. Choose the three-month window so you see the most data. You will see a list of topics with your citations and the three estimates beside each one.
- Read the opportunity queries and pick one. Cross out any that name another business. Of the rest, pick the question closest to what you sell and what a paying customer would ask. You will end this step with one question written down.
- Write one page that answers it. Put the question in the heading, answer it completely in the first paragraph, and give the specifics a machine can repeat: prices, areas served, turnaround, how to reach you. When it is done, you will have a page you could read aloud to that customer as the answer.
Then set a reminder for the same day next month. Open the same report with the same window and check whether the question moved off your opportunity list. Bing publishes no timeline for how quickly a new page is picked up, so treat the one-month look as a check. Some pages take longer.
Why should an owner in Lagos bother with Bing?
Because it shows an owner a named list of questions where it chose someone else, and the method you learn from it carries over to the other engines. The page you write in step five is the same page ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews would need to see before naming you.
Google offers its own Generative AI performance report in Search Console, open to all sites since 31 August 2026. Google's announcement describes impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does not describe a list of questions where other sites appear and yours does not. If you have both reports, read both. They answer different questions.
The customers are already asking these engines:
Bing has now handed every verified site owner part of the answer to "who is the AI naming instead of me?" The work it points to is the same work it always was. The difference is that, for one engine, you no longer have to guess where to start.
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Bing now shows you, by name, the questions where its AI cites someone else. Verify your site, open AI Performance, read the opportunity list, and answer the top question on one page of your website.
One forward before you go: send this post to whoever runs your website and ask them to add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools today if it is not there already. When it is in, ask them for a screenshot of the AI Performance page. If the Topics Portfolio tab is missing, that tells you something too.
Frequently asked questions
Does this report show whether ChatGPT mentions my business?
No. Bing's February 2026 announcement says AI Performance covers Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations. OpenAI's crawler documentation, read on 14 October 2026, describes no report of this kind for site owners. To check ChatGPT, ask it the same five customer questions every month and write down who it names.
I opened AI Performance and there is no Topics Portfolio tab. What does that mean?
Bing says the tab appears only if there is sufficient data for your site, and that smaller sites may see a shorter list or no tab at all. It does not define how much data is enough. A missing tab means Bing's AI has not cited your pages often enough yet to group them, and the citation view in the same report is still worth reading.
Why is a business name showing up as an opportunity query?
Bing's own post says branded queries can appear as opportunity queries. If the name belongs to another business, skip it, because you cannot be the answer to a search for someone else. If the name is yours, read it closely: it means Bing's AI answered a question about your business using other sites.
How exact are the numbers in Topics Portfolio?
They are estimates. Bing says Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries are approximate, that opportunity volumes are shown as ranges, and that topic classification is AI-generated and can be imperfect. Use the list to decide which question to answer first, and do not report the figures to anyone as precise counts.
Is Bing Webmaster Tools an SEO tool?
Yes, it is where site owners manage how Bing finds and indexes their site, and most of it is ordinary SEO reporting. The AI Performance section is different: it counts citations in AI answers, which a rankings report does not show. You can use both, and the AI part is the one most owners have never opened.
Does Google have the same report?
Google has its own Generative AI performance report in Search Console, open to all sites since 31 August 2026. Google's announcement describes impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does not describe a list of questions where other sites appear and yours does not, which is the part Bing has just added.
If I write a page for an opportunity query, will Bing start citing me?
Nobody can promise that, and Bing's post does not. Microsoft publishes no timeline for how quickly a new page is picked up for AI answers, and neither do Google or OpenAI. Write the page, then check the same report in a month with the same date window.
References & sources
- Microsoft Bing, Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance (13 October 2026, read 14 October 2026)
- Microsoft Bing, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview (10 February 2026)
- Google Search Central, Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; all sites from 31 August 2026)
- OpenAI, OpenAI bots documentation (OAI-SearchBot, OAI-AdsBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User) (read 14 October 2026)
- Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026 (5,119 US adults, February 2026)
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults)